Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Generally, when I see a top pitcher live, he gets punked. Carlton was the exception, but Clemens? Pedro? Maddux? They all get clobbered when I'm in the stadium. It's the Kirk Rueters of the world who get their schwerve on and throw three-hitters where I can see them.

Tonight, it was Jake Peavy's turn. He was doing a rehab start for Charlotte - four innings of 65 pitches, whichever came first - and he wasn't quite Jake Peavy. Command was the issue, unsurprisingly. When he was on, the Bulls were swinging out of their shoes. When he wasn't, Joe Dillon was bouncing one off the bull-shaped sign over the left field wall. And in case you're asking, yes, Mighty Joe D did in fact win a steak dinner. Two, actually.

His opposite number, Wade Davis, cruised through 7 2/3, with a no-hitter through 5. He sat 90-92 and dialed it up to 94 on occasion, and was still hitting 93 when they took him out. One troublesome note - not a lot of swings and misses there, and when he threw offspeed stuff, it seemed to get hit hard.

And for the record, Dale Thayer has one of the all-time great porn 'staches.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

...over the fact that that Neal Huntingdon dared break up The Big Yellow Machine in Pittsburgh is the fact that the organization has quietly been spending money. Specifically, they've been shelling out for above-slot bonuses for draft picks. In other words, they are - egads - investing in rebuilding the system. This, I think, is a slightly more worthwhile goal than striving for 83 wins with a bunch of soon-to-be-free-agents.

To be fair, this is the model the team was building toward a couple of years ago, only to have Jim Tracy systematically wreck the promising young rotation of Duke, Snell, Gorzelanny, and friends. With the pitching those guys could have provided, a team with LaRoche, Wilson, Sanchez, et alia might have been close enough to the wild card to consider adding pieces. Without them, fuggedabout it. Time to tear it down and start over, and to their credit, the Pirates aren't just sitting on the money the trades freed up. That, more than anything else, seems indicative of brighter days ahead in Pittsburgh.

And as Tracy closes in on the permanent job in Colorado (largely by virtue of not being Clint Hurdle), I weep for Jhoulys Chacin's shoulder.